A Holocaust memorial in Lyon was defaced with a “Free Gaza” inscription, city officials said Saturday, fueling concerns over an increase in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France.
In a photo posted by Jewish community leaders, the inscription appeared to have been scratched into the black marble of a plaque on the monument with a sharp object.
“The vandalism of the Holocaust Memorial in Lyon is an intolerable act. I condemn it and express my full solidarity with memory associations, survivors and their descendants,” the city’s mayor, Gregory Doucet, wrote in a statement sent to AFP.
“The perpetrators will be sought and prosecuted. Lyon stands firm against hatred, antisemitism and racism,” Doucet added.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the CRIF, a body representing Jewish institutions in France, described the incident as “despicable.”
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The monument in central Lyon was inaugurated in January 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
“The fact that this inscription was made on a Holocaust memorial clearly constitutes an antisemitic act,” a city hall official told AFP, adding that the municipality had quickly removed the inscription to restore the memorial.
An attendee wearing a kippah bearing a Star of David attends the inauguration of the new Lyon holocaust memorial, on January 26, 2025. (Alex MARTIN / AFP)
The president of the Holocaust Memorial association, Jean-Olivier Viout, has filed a complaint, according to the city hall.
France’s Jewish community – one of the largest in the world – says the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and which launched the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In the first six months of 2025, 646 antisemitic acts were recorded across the country, according to the interior ministry — 27 percent less than in the first half of 2024, but a 112 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023 before the war began.
Israel accused France of failing to crack down on rising antisemitism and protect the Jewish community.
The French government “isn’t doing a thing” to fight antisemitism, said Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel on Sunday after the memorial was defaced. “There is no deterrence. There is no enforcement.”
“France is no longer safe for Jews,” she said in an interview with Army Radio, accusing the French government of “consent by silence.”
In a letter sent in mid-August, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained that French President Emmanuel Macron’s promise that France would recognize a Palestinian state was fueling antisemitism.
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